The present disclosure relates generally to network printing systems. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a network printing system having automated selection of a destination printer.
A network printing system is a system that connects one or more user terminals (e.g., personal computer) with a plurality of printers via a network, such as, for example, WAN and LAN. The plurality of printers include fixed characteristics, such as, for example, physical location and print rate; and time varying characteristics, such as, for example, color gamut and available paper stock.
In general, the user terminal transmits a print data request to a particular printer via the network. Prior to transmitting the print data request, the user selects a desired printer from the plurality of printers taking into consideration the fixed characteristics of the selected printer. Accordingly, printing to the selected printer may result in user dissatisfaction, such as, for example, when the color gamut or other time varying characteristics of the printer have changed and/or do not meet the user's quality expectations. Moreover, if, for example, the desired printer is located at some distance from the user, the user will discover that the print quality does not meet the user's quality requirements until the user has traveled to the printer to pick up the finished print job. This inconvenience leads to loss of time and, therefore, loss in productivity. Situations such as these also result in a loss of resources, such as, for example, paper and toner, since the user will most likely reprint the print job using a different printer of the plurality of printers.
In another typical scenario, the user may need a print job without delay but is unaware that the desired printer is processing, for instance, a very large print job, e.g. printing a large document and/or a large number of copies of a document. Thus the user, unknowingly, sends a print data request to the printer, resulting in a delay of his print job.
To overcome the drawbacks in the prior art, it is an aspect of the present disclosure to provide a network printing system having at least one processor which analyzes printer-related data corresponding to each of a plurality of network printers, automatically selects at least one destination printer from the plurality of printers in accordance with the analysis, and notifies the user of the selected destination printer.